Monday, July 06, 2009

Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake and I had the honor of choosing the theme for this month's You Want Pies With That. We asked the participants to come up with a pie that reminds them of a "Taste of Summer". Summer can conjure up seasonal fruit or carnival foods, but it can also be about sunburns and bored kids. I was one of those bored kids.

The concept of over scheduled children driven around by a "soccer mom" didn't quite exist when I was growing up. My parents didn’t send us to camp or summer school. In fact, it was okay to leave children at home alone unsupervised for a few hours back then. My brothers and I would hang around the house and try not to destroy the house or each other.

My mom never let us have any junk food normally. But during the summer break we could occasionally go to the corner store and pick out something sugary. I always chose a Hostess Fruit Pie. I know it sounds gross and I am a bit ashamed to admit that I like it, but a 9 year old me thought it was delicious. [Note: Hostess Fruit Pies are commercially produced hand pies.]

So I decided to bake some miniature blueberry hand pies as a tribute to that childhood summertime treat.

To assemble the hand pies: Roll out your chilled dough to about 1/8-inch thick. Using a 4-inch round cutter, cut out 4-inch circles. (You can reuse the dough scraps once. Lay the scraps, side by side slightly overlapping and roll them between plastic wrap. Refrigerate dough for at least 15 minutes before cutting out more circles from the rolled scraps.) You should get about 22-24 circles.

Spoon about 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons of the blueberry filling, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Brush the edges lightly with cold water (to help the dough stick) and fold dough in half. Using your fingers, press the border to seal it and then press the border using the tines of a fork. Refrigerate filled hand pies for 30-60 minutes.

To bake: Preheat oven to 400F. If desired, brush the chilled turnovers with egg glaze and sprinkle lightly with sugar. Use a sharp knife to cut 3 steam vents into the top of each turnover. Bake at 400F for 15-20 minutes or until the pastry is lightly golden and the filling is bubbling. Let hand pies cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Place the flour, salt and baking powder in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade. Process for a few seconds to combine.

Add the 4.5 ounces of (refrigerated) butter and process for about 20 seconds or until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the 2.5 ounces of (frozen) butter and pulse until the frozen butter is the size of peas.

Add the 5 tbsp of ice water and the vinegar and pulse 6-7 times. Pinch a small amount of the mixture to see if it holds together. If not, add another 1 tbsp water and pulse 3 times. Try pinching again to see if it holds together. If not, add the final 1 tbsp water and pulse 3 times.

Divide the dough in half. Wrap each portion with plastic wrap and flatten into discs. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.

Just today I went to check on how the wild berries are coming along. The blueberries have just another week until they are ready. I see blueberry hand pies in my very near future. Thanks for the recipe.

I was a fan of the Hostess Apple pie.:) My pie dough never looks pretty. I can't seem to get the hang of the pinching technique. Your look lovely. I made the salted p.b toffee cookies and they turned out beautifully! Thank you for posting the recipe.

I just came across your blog & have spent the last hour (maybe 2), exploring it. INCREDIBLE! I've just recently, really started baking & I'm having a ball. There are so many wonderful baking blogs that are full of inspiration, but yours is just extra special! I plan on making "Hand Pies" tonight, but I'm going to use strawberry. Wish me luck & I will report back. Thanks for such a beautiful blog. I'm hooked!

Hey Mary! Congratulations to us! Our pies tied. (I voted for yours by the way!-yummy!) If you want to e-mail me so we can come up with next month's theme it's email4jeanette @ gmail . com. Talk to you soon.

I've never experienced the commercially produced version (British girl, here), but these sound so good - I have blueberries in the fridge that are starting to make me anxious (I just don't know what to do with them!) so hand pies may be the answer. Not to mention that these are the cutest things in the world.

These are so freakin' cute and yummy. We're having one of the best blueberry crops in years here in Michigan, so I made a double batch of these for a big bake sale where I work. I've never made a pastry crust with baking powder in it before. It was lovely to work with, and beautifully tender. It stands up to a little extra handling, too.

How well I remember those lunchbox pies from childhood (and early adulthood). I've long since straightened out my dietary habits, but I still get primal cravings for things like that. Thanks for posting a terrific upgraded version.

Mmmm! Love how the hand pie revolution is making a comeback in the blogosphere! Made these after peach picking last month. So frickin' tasty!Best,http://www.justchowbella.com/2009/09/well-arent-you-peach-hand-pie.html

Oh my these look delicious! Oddly enough I made apricot/peach and apple whole wheat hand pies yesterday, only to have the dog sneak them. Yes, he ate the remaining 12! So tomorrow I am going to make the blueberry hand pies! I am sure a "tribe" of teen boys will greatly appreciate it!!

I just love your blog! This is my first time here and I am so looking forward to spend time perusing it!

The alpine strawberry (Fragaria vesca) is a cousin of the wild strawberry. It's sometimes simply referred to as alpineberry. I love to bake, cook and garden. My blog is a place to share my recipes and other tiny tidbits of my life.